Vehicular traffic recorder



Patented Dec. 15, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE JOHN 'A. DUNFORD, OF SEATTLE, WASILINGTONv VE HIOULAR TRAFFIC anconnmz.

Application filed June 16,

the invention will appear in the following specification.

The invention consists in the novel construction, adaptation and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings,--

Figure 1 is a transverse vertical sectional view of a portion of a street or highway with devices, shown somewhat dia rammatically,

embodying the present inventlon, and in full m and broken lines portions of vehicle runninggears to illustrate an application of the invention. Fig. 2 is a view in transverse ver-. tical section of a traffic detector member of the apparatus and the protective casing therefor. Fig. 3 is a detailsectional view of a tube partitioning means. Fig. 1 is a side elevation of mechanism for actuating the trafiic indicating meter; and Fig. 5 is a transverse sectional view taken substantially on broken line 5-5 of Fig. 4 and including the meter not shown in Fi 4.

In said drawings, t e reference numeral 10 represents a side portion of a street or road upon which vehicles travel in one direction, and,.as shown, is divided by means of dome-like hollow bodies 11, 11 11 which serve as guides to define vehicular lanes 12 and 12 Each of'said lanes is, advantageously, of a width exceeding the age or lat eral spread of the respective wlxeels as 13 and 13 of the vehicles which are to be counted by the present invention.

The .running space between adjacent domes, as 1111 or 11 -11, is, however, of less width than requisite to accommodate two vehicles travelling side by side in either of said lanes.

In carrying out my invention, I provide upon the road surface of the lanes 12 and 12 resilient tubes 14 and 15 which extend trans- 1927. Serial no. 199,190.

versely of the respective lanes and into the chambers of the markers 11 and 11 Where two or more trafiic lanes are employed in side by side relation the tubes therefor are advantageously extended entirely across the same to enable both ends of the tubes being secured to the markers at opposite sides of the respective lanes. Where a tube thus extends entirely across a lane it is contracted at about its midlength as by means of a clamp 17 (Fig. 3), to divide, in effect, the tube 14- into two portions 144 and 1 1 and the other tube 15 into portions 15 and 15 The internal spaces of the'tube portions 14 and 15 constitute receptacles for air, and are each provided with a small perforationsuch as l8-aifording communication between the external atmosphere and the interior of the tube portion 149, or 15 The ends of the respective tube portions 14 and 15 are operatively connected with air controlled lmpulse detectors, one for each tube.

As illustrated in Fig. 2 with respect to thetube 14, the end of a tube is connected by means of nipples 19 and 20 with the interior of a hollow metal member 21 having a resilient end wall or diaphragm 21 which adapts the member to be distended by the pressure of air therein when such pressure is capable of overcoming the opposing pressure of the external atmosphere plus the resistance of the metallic Walls 21 and 21 to cause. a change fromtheir normal shapes.

The member 21 is enclosed in a protective casing. 22 and, as illustrated, provides therewith 'an electrical conductor with respect to a circuit wire 23.

A circuit wire 24 complementary to the wire 23 is connected to a binding post 25 which constitutes the stationary element of the detector and serves as the terminaf of a normally open switch whose other terminal is provided by the element 21 which is movable into gap-closing contact with the element 25 by an increase of air pressure within the member 21 responsive to a compressive force applied by a vehicle when passing over the associated road tube.

In Fig. 2 the circuit wires above referred v to are represented as extending through a flexible covering 50 of insulating material.

Included in the invention is a countin ma- .chine or meter, indicated by 26 in Fig. 5, which may be of any suitable or known type. In the illustrated embodiment the counting mechanism is actuated through the medium of a rotary shaft 27 operated by means of spur gears 28 and 29 from a rotary shaft 30 which is journaled in bearings provided in standards 31 of a supporting frame. Rigid with the shaft 30 and extending at right angles therefrom is an arm 32 upon which is rotatably mounted a toothed pinion 33 which is in continuous mesh with the teeth of two spaced bevel gears 34 and 35 which are mountratchet wheel 34 is carried by an arm 36 of a lever fulcrumed upon the shaft 30 and has provided on its other arm 37 the armature 38 of an electromagnet whosev winding 39 is included in the circuit 2324 extendingt from the detector within the marker 11.

In like manner, the pawl 35 (Fig. 5) for the ratchet wheel 35 is carried by an arm 36 of a second lever whose other arm (not shown) carries the armature 38 of an electromagnet winding 39 which is included in the circuit 23 -24 of the detector within the marker 11 The electric current for said circuits may be supplied from any suitable sourceas, for example, a battery 40, shown in Fig. 1. The arms 36 and 36 of the respective levers are each yieldably held, as by means of a spring 41, against a stop such as 42 wihen the respective magnets are deenergize Spring actuated dogs 43 and 43 are provided to prevent the respective ratchet wheels from retrogression.

In operation, the weight of a vehicle passing over the operable portion 14 (or 15 of a road tube efiects through the medium of its front and rear wheels, respectively,

two successive compressions of the tube whereby two compressed air impulses are applied to a movable element 21 to close intermittently the respective electric circuit. When an electric circuit is thus closed, its magnet is ener ized resulting in the pawl 34 (or 35 belng actuated to impart two rotative movements through the medium of the respective ratchet wheel 34 (or 35 to the gear 34 (or 35) which is integraltherewith. When either of the gears 34 or 35 are thus rotated singly, it acts upon the gear 33 to impart a rotary movement thereto and also, by reason of its engagement with the non-rotating gear 35 or 34, the gear 33 is caused to revolve about the axis of the shaft 30.

Such revoluble motioniof the pinion 33 imparts rotative motion to said shaft,whence motion is transmitted through gears 29 and 28 to actuate the counting devices within the meter 26.

In practice, the counting devices and the gearing of the actuating mechanism therefor are so arranged and proportioned that two impulses-one originating from the front wheels and the other from the rear wheels of a vehicle-when applied through the pinion 33 acting as described above will cause the indicator of the meter to count one. WVhen wheels of two vehicles pass coincidently over the tubes of both lanes (12 and 12 both of the gears 34 and 35 will be rotated simultaneously thereby revolving the pinion 33 about the shaft 30 without any rotary motion on the arm 32 and, in consequence, the

revoluble arcuate movement of the pinion 33 y will be twice the arcute movement of the same when influenced by rotary movement of either of the gears 34 or 35 taken singly; hence the double throw, so to speak, of the pinion 33 when actuated by two vehicles acting upon the respective tubes will cause the indicated record of the meter to be increased by two instead of by one.

Two vehicles traveling in side by side relation will affect separate tubes because of the arrangement of the operable portions 14 and 15 thereof as hereinbefore described. This will be understood from an inspection of Fig. 1, wherein is represented by dotted lines 13 the wheels of a vehicle axle assembly which straddle the marker 11 making en- I do not, however, wish to beunderstood as i confining myself specifically to the illustrated embodiment except as I may be limited by v the following claims.

What I claim, is,

1. In trafiic counting apparatus having a normally open electric circuit, an expandable electric-conducting means adapted to close said circuit responsive to passage of vehicle wheels, a tubular compressible member communicatively attached to said circuit closing means and adapted to project transversely of a vehicle lane in the path of said vehicle wheels, and means to render a portion of said compressible member operatively responsive to the passage thereover of said vehicle wheels and the other portion of said member inoperative.

2. In trafiic counting apparatus havin a normally open electric circuit, an expanda le electric-conducting means, and a tubular compressible member communicatively at-. tached thereto, said member being adapted to transmit to said conducting means intermittent air impulses responsive to the wheels 0f a vehicle passing thereover to expand said electric conducting means into circuit closing en agement.

igned at Seattle, Washington, this 2nd day of June, 1927.

JOHN A. DUNFORD. 

